Previews

E3 2009: Brink Preview

Spiffy:

Awesome-looking; dynamic missions really could change the way people play together.

Iffy:

Eight-player cooperative sounds nice, but I wonder if it'll get scaled back as in so many other games?

What is It?

Brink is a new FPS from Splash Damage, creators of Enemy Territory: Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. It takes place in 2035, and is about a world where rising sea levels have left very little land to live on, resulting in conflicts between two factions called the Security and the Resistance. The game takes place on a floating city called The Ark, and allows players to play through a campaign for both Resistance and Security forces.

What's New for E3?

This is the first time that anyone's seen the game, so everything was new.

The demo started with the character walking through an abandoned airport. While there weren't any targets to shoot, this was a perfect opportunity for Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgewood to show off the S.M.A.R.T. system. S.M.A.R.T. stands for Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain, and basically translates to the player's ability to hold down the "smart button" (aka sprint in any other game) and watch as their character automatically responds to terrain in order to reach where he is looking. So, for instance, when Wedgewood wanted to reach a platform on the second story across the courtyard he held the sprint button and looked at his destination, prompting his character to naturally jump tables, flip over hand rails, and finally pull himself up to the level above. It looked easy to use, but it did seem like it could be problematic if you were sprinting and accidentally pulled yourself up to another level when you were just trying to run by.

Tell me the art style doesn't look awesome and then tell me what it feels like to be a liar.

Brink's art style is immediately striking. It's very unique-looking, but at the same time feels similar to other shooters like Team Fortress 2 and Gears of War. Huge, strong, characters dominate the game, but they're done in such a way that they are just a couple steps above a really well-drawn Saturday morning cartoon. The result are awesome-looking characters who manage to fall into a lot of shooter stereotypes, but also look original and refreshing.

Besides its visual style and unusual movement mechanic, the big thing that Brink brings to the FPS genre is dynamically changing mission objectives. Players pick their class and can change it while on the battlefield in order to complete an objective of their choice, which constantly change based on how you're doing and what's needed for the mission at that point. Missions allocate specific amounts of experience based on how necessary they are, and several will always be available to a player at any given time. The point of the system is to let you do what you want, when you want, and hopefully let you play the game as the type of character that's really interesting to you.

Brink may have two complete single-player campaigns for the factions, but it doesn't have to be played alone. You can play solo, play competitive multiplayer matches, or play cooperatively with up to seven other people. The important thing that Wedgewood wanted to emphasize was that no matter how you play, online or off, all the experience you accrue will be available to use to purchase upgrades for your character. And it doesn't matter if you play it on PC or 360, the max amount of players that can play in coop will be eight.

I know what you're thinking, "that guy looks pretty S.M.A.R.T. right about now."

Anthony says:
I went into the Brink presentation with low expectations, but I think the demo I watched would have left me satisfied even if I'd gone in there knowing that it was a triple-A title. Brink doesn't look like it's doing anything genre-defining, exactly, but its clever art, combined with the awesome dynamic mission system, has the potential to turn it into a surprise hit at this year's E3, and in 2010 when it releases.